Sunday, March 18, 2012

The 12th edition of Monstra - Lisbon Animated Film Festival (Monstra- Festival de Animação de Lisboa) will inaugurate tomorow 19th and will prolong until the 25th of this month.

With a programme of more than 100 films from Portugal, Germany, Japan and Canada, Monstra will dedicate this year's retrospective to Germany, a country with a long tradition in animation, of which the Festival will show films from the 20's to our times, covering themes such as music and satire. Some of the names include Bruno Böttge, Lotte Reiniger and Raimund Krumme, one of the invited guests of the Festival.

Having Bauhaus has a meeting poin for new and experimental artistic cultural and philosophical ideas, where names such as Hans Richter, Oskar Fischinger, Walter Rutman, Viking Eggeling and Lotte Reiniger, are a reference among many others, Germany has placed an indelible influence in the animated art of the 20th century's first half.

Following last editions, Monstra will also dedicate a retrospective to the Eastern animated films, with Japan playing this year's role.The 2012 highlights will be "Ghost in the Shell," a Manga film from the director Mamoru Oshii and the film "Winter Days," a tribute to the recently deceased film director Kihachiro Kawamoto that will include the presence of one of the film's assistants, the film director and performer Noriko Morita.

In this year's edition, the competition is dedicated to short films, namely directed by students, and to under 2 minutes short films (Curtíssimas). Several prizes will be attributed to different categories.Student classes will arrive from England, France and Germany, as well as young directors from many parts of the world.The sudents competitions will be curated by Júlio Alves and Miguel Matos.

For the first time, the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) colaborates with Monstra to create the SPA/Vasco Granja prize, with the intent of rewarding the best Portuguese animation film created in 2011. The prize has a value of €5000.

Children are an important, if not the most important, element of this Festival. For them, Monstra 12 has Monstrinha, a special programme taking place in several places that will include specially catered sessions presented by field experts who will talk about the techniques that were used on each film.One of the highlights of Monstrinha will be the film "Bambi," that celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.The session wil take place in the peninsula of Troia. Those deslocating from Lisbon will benefit from free transport offered by the organization.

Several parallel activities will take place during the Festival, including workshops and master classes, as well as exhbitions.

A reference partner of Monstra, is the Museu da Marioneta (Marionette Museum), where the exhibition "Marionetas de Animação," dedicated to the DEFA Studio from the ex-DDR will take place. DEFA is one of the most important European animated film studios, with over 1500 films produced in 35 years (1955 to 1990).Through the project [RE]Animar, vistors to the museum will have the chance to play with the zoetrope and learn about its use and how although an old instrument, still triggers curiosity and continues to be used.

Celebrating 10 years of Opera Imaginaire, the organization presents a programme about music and animation, in partnership with the programme DESCOBRIR from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.A tribute to the Portuguese director José Abel, of which Opera Imaginaire was his last work and had its premiere after his death, will be made through the presentation of his originals.

On a side note: The Monstra Festival sponsored the presentation of "Nutri Ventures - Em Busca dos 7 Reinos"(Nutri Ventures - The Quest for the 7 Kingdoms), which took place on the 17th at the Cinema São Jorge.This is the biggest animation series ever done in Portugal and will soon start on the RTP2 and Panda channel.